The objective of the present Doctoral Thesis is to outline a detailed study about the FOB term (Free on Board) of the Incoterms (International Commercial Terms). These terms, periodically edited and upgraded by the International Chamber of Commerce, enjoy a wide diffusion in its field: the international trade of goods. But, which is the reason of that success?
Numerous factors can contribute to explain the great acceptance of the Incoterms in general and of the FOB modality in particular. On one hand, this term benefits of a favorable economic context, in which the advances in the transports and communications have facilitated as never before in the history the commercial exchanges. On the other hand, the juridical context of the international trade is also favorable for the FOB term, given the high maneuver and negotiation margin that the national law and the international treaties grant to the parts in the sale and purchase contracts. But the external factors are not the only ones that can explain the wide diffusion of the FOB modality.
The FOB term constitutes a sale and purchase modality, preferably although not exclusively international, and the key of its success resides in its juridical quality. Being remitted to this term, the contracting parties can know the most important aspects in a transaction, like the transmission of the risks of loss or damages of the merchandise, the allotment of the expenses, the distribution of the obligations or which of the parts should concert the accessory contracts of transport and assurance. Also, the members of the sale and purchase contract can modify this term or add specifications, so that their content adapts better to their concrete necessities.
Along this Thesis, the reader will be able to check how the FOB modality of the sale and purchase, far from being an isolated element, cohabits and is related with its economic and juridical context, the problematic that outlines its enunciated, as well as the solutions that the laws, the jurisprudence and the doctrine have offered to such queries, so much in our country as abroad.